I have a PhD in chemistry, so I've been through all the classes mentioned.

Organic is, in fact, the only one you absolutely CAN memorize. Unlike the math-based chemistry classes where you have to learn principles, which the pre-meds struggle mightily with, the memorization-heavy organic chemistry is the one that is considered to be similar enough to medical school that it is used as a weed-out.

This is particularly true of organic *synthesis*, vs. organic *mechanisms*. Mechanistic organic is often presented as a first semester organic class, and that does actually require knowledge and understanding. Synthesis, however, is nearly straight memorization, even if you don't want to.

I was happy when the pre-meds stopped taking the major-level chemistry classes (mostly after organic). It made my physical chemistry classes much more interesting. It didn't keep the one pre-med in the class from whining the entire time that he wasn't getting the answers spoon-fed to him from the book, though.

So I don't know where the author is coming from, because they completely got it wrong.

Based on that, and on my viewpoint as a Google employee who builds some of the internal security systems that the NSA would have to compromise to snoop, I am completely convinced that Google is telling the truth when it says that it has not given the NSA any sort of direct or indirect access.

I don't know if they are intentionally being this clever - but if the execs were to claim daily that they aren't bending over for the NSA, the day they stop claiming it is the day you know they are bent over by the NSA. In effect, their denials become a "dead man's switch" of sorts that circumvents the inability to tell the world that you have to comply with the NSA's tentacles.

This is foolproof unless the NSA can either 1) forbid the entire populace to cease speaking about the entire topic of surveillance, or 2) compel people to lie.

I couldn't find that in the text. However, that likely doesn't mean "open source" as in software. It means "open source", as in, the source of info is, well, open. Think things like broadcasts, newspapers, slashdot...

for 50 years, the federal government has taxed nuclear fuel to build a permanent waste depository. where is it?

As much as I love blasting on our danged ole federal gummint, on this one I have to blame the NIMBY asshats in Nevada. You see, the Feds identified a pretty damned good place in Yucca Mountain. The place is geologically pretty stable, made of solid rock, and has a crazy low water table. Oh, and it's about 100 miles away from civilization, which in this case means Las Vegas.

The feds spent decades fighting the locals to get this done, until Obama finally capitulated to the NIMBYs as fronted by Sen. Harry Reid, killing the project and leaving a total lack of long term storage. Quid pro quo for something, no doubt.

Obama is a centrist, not a leftist, especially with regard to civil liberties.

Sorry buddy, where civil liberties are concerned he's practically a fascist. This shit - IRS, AP, Fox News, drone kills, etc, etc, etc - is so far over the line that Bush II established, it isn't even funny. In either the sardonic or the ha-ha sense. Obama, on the topic of openness and liberty, is worse than Bush II in every way.

And if the media were as motivated to take Obama down as they were to take Nixon down, I expect this would be a lot bigger than it is now. As it is, he gets the kid gloves treatment, and somehow his excuses about not knowing about this shit get swallowed.

The more I see from this president, the more disgusted I become. Mostly because he has become exactly the sort of person he claimed to be against during his first "hopey changey" campaign. Every politician becomes a hypocrite upon gaining office, but this one wins the prize.

, it was the Wright Brothers who understood the inherit instability of a plane. Others thought of a plane as a bit like a boat in the water, but the Wrights had been bicycle mechanics, and knew that one had to constantly control a bicycle,

As a cyclist, that makes sense. It could also explain the instinct to change direction by banking rather than simply turning the vehicle in the plane, as one would do with a 4-wheeled vehicle on land, or through use of a rudder with a boat. As anyone who has ever ridden a bike at high speed knows, you don't turn by twisting the handlebars.

I work in an R&D lab, but in between daily tasks there is a lot of downtime, which I spend at my desk, staring at my computer.

I say this as a manager in an R&D lab:

I want to hire self motivated people. And co-ops are a great way to end up with a full time position. But I will avoid like the plague people who sit staring at their computer because they weren't told what to do. If you weren't told what to do, ask what to do. If you get no guidance, suggest a side project of your own to work when you don't have other tasks. Failing that, if you're a scientist, find some journal articles and get smarter.

I wholeheartedly support the effort to get in shape, but I wouldn't start treating on-the-job downtime as an opportunity to engage in extracurricular activity. It might suggest you're not serious about your co-op. I realize you're probably young and think you're doing enough if you're doing what you told, but the people who get ahead are those who motivate themselves.

What the FUCK is a FUCKING lawyer doing working as a FUCKING VP for a software company?

VP is a title that has been subject to the corporate version of grade inflation. At my company we have VPs of everything. I'm sure they have multiple VPs in most every group, and not having a single lawyer at the VP level would be a bit conspicuous.

Now if they had a lawyer for one of the main C-level executive positions, that would be different. But this is just big-company title inflation.

I agree. Of the agencies I want to be extra cautious, FAA is at the top of the list along with the FDA. NHTSA, and other agencies that are responsible for making sure that the products and services we use don't kill us.

It's not like they can pull the plane over until they find out which device is screwing with the avionics, were such a thing to happen..

Ooooh, internet tough guy! Hey, by the way - putting three periods instead of one at the end of all your sentences doesn't make you sound intelligent. And a lack of capital letters doesn't make you e.e. cummings.